Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Mapa) has decided to cancel the need for registering of all products exclusively classified as adjuvants.

The decision was taken during the 8th Ordinary Meeting of Technical Agrochemical Advisory Committee, which was held on November 6th, 2017.

“The products, which are classified exclusively as adjuvants, will be free to sell, without the need for any Mapa authorization,” according to Act No. 104, published in the Official Union Gazette.

According to the meeting minutes, the decision was based on a legal opinion of a Ministry of Agriculture consultancy. The act states that removing this requirement is justified, “Registration is not mandatory, under Law No. 7,802 (July 11th, 1989) and under Decree No. 4,074 (January 4th of 2002).”

The published decision further states that “adjuvant products will be continued to be classified as agricultural raw materials if used as such, as defined in Subsection II of the 1st Article of Decree No. 4,074 (January 2002).”

According to experts, the measure will facilitate the increase in the supply of adjuvants in the local market. That is because, until now, it was necessary to register these products as fertilizers or even as agrochemicals - which demanded many cost and time.

The Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa) defines adjuvants as, “added substances to formulations that will increase the efficiency of a product, or will modify certain properties of the solution, with the aim of easing their application and minimizing potential problems”.

Adjuvants are divided into two groups - the modifiers of liquid surface properties (surfactants: spreader, humectant, detergents, dispersants and adhesives), and the additions (mineral or vegetable oil, ammonium sulfate and others) that affect absorption due to its direct action over the cuticle.